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laetus. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
laetus, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
laetus in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
laetus you have here. The definition of the word
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Latin
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Unknown; possibly related to alacer (“happy, glad, cheerful”). Often compared to lardum (“fat, bacon lard”) and largus (“abundant, bountiful”), presupposing an earlier form *lai-to and earlier *lai-es, but de Vaan finds this reconstruction problematic.
Alternative forms
Adjective
laetus (feminine laeta, neuter laetum, comparative laetior, superlative laetissimus, adverb laetē); first/second-declension adjective
- happy, cheerful, glad
- Synonyms: felix, libēns, alacer, hilaris, hilarus, vīvus
- Antonyms: trīstis, infelix, maestus, miser, aeger
- Laetus sum. ― I (a man) am happy.
- Laeta sum. ― I (a woman) am happy.
- fertile, luxuriant, lush, rich
234 BCE – 149 BCE,
Cato the Elder,
De Agri Cultura 6:
- Ubi ager crassus et laetus est sine arboribus, eum agrum frumentarium esse oportet.
- Grain should be sown in heavy, rich, treeless soil.
Declension
First/second-declension adjective.
Derived terms
Descendants
Etymology 2
From Gothic *𐌻𐌴𐍄𐍃 (*lēts) (attested in Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌻𐌴𐍄𐍃 (fralēts, “freeman”)), from Proto-Germanic *lētaz, from Proto-Germanic *lētaną (“to let, rent, free, release”). Attested in the Lex Salica. Cognate with Old Frisian lēt (“serf”), Old English lǣt (“serf”), English let, liege.
Alternative forms
Noun
laetus m (genitive laetī); second declension (Late Latin)
- a foreign bondman who received a piece of land to cultivate, for which he paid tribute to his master; a serf.
Declension
Second-declension noun.
Derived terms
Descendants
References
- Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “laetus”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, pages 337b–338a
- “laetus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “laetus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- laetus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- laetus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- the laughing cornfields: laetae segetes
- “laetus”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
- ^ Buck, C. D. (2008). A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages. United States: University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959) chapter 652, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 652
- ^ Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, p. 820
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “laetus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 323